“This song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles…we’re stealing it back!” Bono shouts when you drop the needle on U2’s Rattle and Hum. The 1988 album, recorded mainly during the band’s final North American leg of their 1987 tour to promote The Joshua Tree, consists of live and studio recordings, originals and cover versions.
Clearly affected by the band’s love/hate relationship with the country they’ve toured so extensively, the album is an eclectic mix of stadium rock anthems infused with blues and gospel. Over the course of the album’s 72 minutes, U2 name check American jazz greats, write a sequel to a Lennon song, reclaim a Beatles song, duet with B.B King, and even sample Jimi Hendrix.
But it could never have been any other way; this is the story of the newly crowned kings of rock, touring God’s own country in wide-eyed bewilderment. Rattle and Hum is a both humble and pretentious homage to America’s greatest artists, a snapshot of a confusing physical and spiritual journey, but more than that, it puts you on tour with one of the world’s greatest rock bands. 4.0 out of 5.0 stars